Podcast Ep 239: Early Table could be the vital ingredient Ireland’s restaurant industry needs, says founder James Lenehan.
The restaurant industry in Ireland has been facing significant challenges over the past few years, with rising costs and tax constraints being the main factors.
But a new digital platform aims to make use of a key time of day where restaurants would welcome footfall and if most diners were honest, the early evening slot would suit them too.
“There’s never been a restaurant platform in Ireland where you could come in and actually book and discover new restaurants and enjoy them at a discounted price point. So we decided to explore it”
Early Table delivers value by offering exclusive discounts on meals booked via its platform. Diners benefit from substantial savings on both dine-in and takeaway options, with discounts available at off-peak and select peak times, set by the restaurants to optimise capacity and revenue.
Deals for early evening meals
Many of the restaurants using Early Table’s service nationwide are household names in the Irish hospitality industry such as Asador Barbecue and Grill, Shaku Maku, Hyde Dublin, Bloom Brasserie, Brother Hubbard, Paulies Pizza, and more. Dine at home options include familiar favourites such as BASE Pizza, Saba and Bombay Pantry.
Since its soft launch in 2023, Early Table has connected over 34,000 active members with exclusive dining offers, providing savings of up to 50% while helping restaurants nationwide fill empty tables.
The platform is on track to triple its user base to 100,000 people in 2025.
We spoke with entrepreneur James Lenehan about how the platform will lead to increased business for restaurants and savings for diners.
He explained that the restaurant industry in Ireland has faced significant challenges from rising costs and tax constraints leading to a spate of closures.
Early Table, he said, offers an opportunity for restaurants to showcase their business and generate incremental revenue by attracting customers during traditionally slow periods or off-peak times.
For diners it provides valuable savings and encourages them to try out new restaurants.
Lenehan has been providing reward, recognition and loyalty-related services for more than 25 years.
“Essentially, we’re a tech company. We work with a lot of big corporate and one of the big requirements that they’ve often come to us is looking for new content types. So a number of years ago, we built out a very strong API (application protocol interface) where we put in gift cards from all sorts of high street shops. Subsequent to that, we developed a platform that allows you to get discounted hotels and again, offering 20% to 25% off your normal kind of prices.
“But we had a lot of inquiries around restaurants, and there’s never been a restaurant platform in Ireland where you could come in and actually book and discover new restaurants and enjoy them at a discounted price point. So we decided to explore it.
“We went and talked to a load of restaurants first, which is the first place you’d go when you’re looking to do market discovery. And the key problem that they felt we could help them solve was around the kind of 5pm to 6.30pm time period.
“And they were saying to us ‘Look, we don’t get anybody coming through the door at that time, and we’d be prepared to incentivise it, almost like a dynamic pricing system where, you know, maybe get 50% off between 5pm and 6pm, and maybe down to 30% between 6pm and 7pm, for example. So that was essentially how it was born.
“We realised that if we were able to do this without charging the restaurants, we’d get a lot of them to come on board. And that was key.
“We went back to the market and we decided to call it Early Table, because it is the early time of the evening, and we talked to a range of customers who all said: ‘Look, to be honest with you, we’re happy to change our time of dining if we’re actually to help a restaurant and get a bit of a financial incentive. And that’s really how it was born.”
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